Targeting tests for prostate cancer at the men most likely to develop the disease could halve the number needed to be screened, reduce overdiagnosis, and potentially save the NHS millions of pounds, suggests research.

With funding from Cancer Research UK, researchers from London and Cambridge developed a model to estimate the cost and quality adjusted life years (QALYs) of a personalised screening programme compared with an age based screening strategy using data from English cancer registries and the ProtecT study (http://www.hta.ac.uk/1230) into the treatments for clinically localised prostate cancer.

Both strategies used the prostate specific antigen test …